


Killing Curse

by ishafel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is our choices that make us who we are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Killing Curse

His mother sends him to Persia, to the House of the Setting Sun, where Abraxas Malfoy's mother had been born, and there he is taught to kill. They teach him killing much as he was taught magic; each method is a class. There is killing barehanded, with a wire, with a blade, with poison. There is killing by curse, only when he has mastered the others. Draco is the oldest of the students there, and the fairest skinned, and the slowest to learn. Like his cousins he has been bred to kill: unlike them he has no gift for it.

When he masters the Avada Kedavra they send him home to England. The eastern sun has turned his white skin to bronze and made his fair hair fairer. He wears a necklace made of trophies under his shirt that is new; the mark on his arm he had when he came. They are sending to England a weapon, the winning stroke in an unwinnable war, and an arrow straight to the heart of the Order. Despite everything they have made Draco into the thing that he was meant to be.

They have changed the way he walks, the hand he uses to hold a wand; they have changed the way he sees himself when he looks in the mirror. They have not changed who he is. Only Draco can do that, and only if he chooses. He goes home to England and kneels before Voldemort, and Voldemort kisses both of his cheeks and raises him to his feet. And Severus Snape clasps his arm and welcomes him like a brother, and promises him that he has chosen the winning side at last.

They have taught him to kill and set him free, even as Voldemort bound him. And so he hunts with the hounds even as he runs with the fox, and when the war ends he has enough trophies to make a second necklace and they pin a dozen medals on his chest. But it does not make him welcome among them, and it does not change the fact that he is a killer. In the end he goes east again, and Snape goes with him, to the House of the Setting Sun. And there, amongst their kind, they are welcome.


End file.
